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Wall roughness effects in laminar flows: an often ignored though significant issue

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Abstract

The effect of wall roughness, which is strong in turbulent flows often, is neglected in laminar flows, though without justification. With an experimental set-up which allows for changes in the relative roughness of a channel without requiring manipulation of the rough channel surface, it can be shown that there is a non-negligible influence of wall roughness even for laminar flows. Based on the consideration of entropy production in these flows, an increased dissipation rate in the vicinity of the roughness elements is identified as the physical mechanism that leads to an increased total head loss when the walls are no longer smooth.

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Acknowledgments

The authors want to thank Dr. Sid Becker/North Carolina State University and Humboldt Fellow at TU Hamburg-Harburg for his assistance in preparing the final version of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg, Germany

    D. Gloss & H. Herwig

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  1. D. Gloss
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  2. H. Herwig
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Correspondence to H. Herwig.

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Gloss, D., Herwig, H. Wall roughness effects in laminar flows: an often ignored though significant issue. Exp Fluids 49, 461–470 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-009-0811-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-009-0811-6

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